A couple from MO bought a lot in FL and hired a contractor to build 5000 sq ft house on it for $680k. The contractor built it but on the wrong lot. They tracked it back to a survey error.
This says they're trying to negotiate a settlement. What settlement? If this was mine, someone would be moving the house to my lot or building me another one. This isn't too different from some of the horror stories you hear about a demolition company tearing down the wrong house.


Missouri couple�s $680,000 Florida beach house is built on the wrong lot
Published October 14, 2014
FoxNews.com

The Missouri family bought the lot in 2012 and hired Keystone Homes to build a three-story, 5,000-square-foot vacation rental for $680,000. (The Daytona Beach News-Journal)

A dream beach house in Florida has turned into a nightmare for a Missouri couple.

Six months after the custom house was built along the Atlantic Ocean near Palm Coast, Mark and Brenda Voss learned it's on the wrong lot in the gated Ocean Hammock community.

Mark Voss tells the Daytona Beach News Journal they're in "total disbelief." The couple own 18 other residential lots in the community. They bought the lot in 2012 and hired Keystone Homes to build a three-story, 5,000-square-foot vacation rental for $680,000.

"We may have moved (to Ocean Hammock) someday. But, with this headache and grief, we're not so sure. The Midwest is looking pretty good right now," he told the paper.

Keystone vice president Robbie Richmond says the company is trying to negotiate a settlement.

"The buck stops with the builder. We know that. We are in the process of trying to schedule a conference call and find a fair resolution without the lawyers," Richmond told the paper.

The couple hired a lawyer.

Keystone and Voss say the error can be traced to a 2013 survey. The mistake was uncovered in September after the house had been rented frequently.

The house comes with five bedrooms, a game room and a screened-in pool, the report said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

It would seem that the correct owners of the lot the house was built on have a pretty good negotiating position right now.

It says THEY own 18 other lots, and it doesn't say it was built on someone ELSE'S lot

It just say "the WRONG lot"

I suspect when they checked with the surveyor, he simply gave them the wrong address off the long list of lots they own

Can't imagine having a house built and not stopping by on occasion during the process to see how it's going. Then again I don't own 18 lots in a development nor would my dream house involve renting it out to other people.

The house is in FL
They live in MO
Doesn't anyone actually read the posts?

You mean MO and FL are not just next door?

If it was a surveying error than I would think the survey company would be on the hook. The builder builds where the stakes are set.

If I'm dropping nearly $700k on a house, I'll definately fly down a couple times during the construction and make sure the builder is on the right track.

i'm crying for them and their 18 lots. boo friggen hoo.

Surveyors don't work with addresses as much as they do a proper legal description.

"100 Main Street" might change several times through the years. But "Lot 1, Block 5, Forester Subdivision Unit 1, of Fugawee County, FL" is pretty constant.

If indeed the survey company staked the wrong lot, and provided a plat of that, then they could be culpable.

The General Contractor is legally on the hook, assuming he hired the Surveyor. The homeowner, presumably does not have a contract with the Surveyor.
Having said that, the GC certainly has recourse against the Surveyor and his Errors and Omissions policy.

What about the owner, who's lot the house was built on, does he have legal claim to the house?

Only in the South, Bubba strikes again.

Depends on the state and state law.

I've seen it in NM.

$350k house built on someone else's lot.

The guy that happened to own the lot was a lawyer. He told them "Thank You! You have 30 days to vacate my residence."

They did, and it pretty much ruined the family financially. They owed the bank money on a house they didn't live in, and couldn't sell.

Everyone thought the lawyer was a chickenschidt. Except the lawyer of course.

It doesn't belong to them. This is from a different article.

Shouldn't be too hard to settle for the couple, they sue to have their earnest money returned, and find a different builder and surveyor, and go through the whole process of picking a floor plan and all the finishing touches and wait 8-12 months, and I'd venture to say visit a time or two during construction.

Where it will get interesting is with the owner of the lot, the builder and the surveyor. Depending on what the owner of the lot wants done, somebody is going to be out some serious coin.

I think it's gone too far for that. They built it as a rental and it's already been rented out a few times. So, they've already taken possession...sight unseen apparently.

Obviously the building inspector didn't catch the error either, but I doubt he would have looked that close at the address.

When I asked if the contractor would declare bankruptcy, I saw that actually happen with a much smaller screwup than this one. I was roofing at the time and I was called to find a leak in a bank's roof. 2 of us spent several days trying to find it without success. There was a brand new heat unit on the roof and I was leaning on it trying to figure out our next move when I got to thinking about the unit itself. I walked around it a few times and looked at the drain holes under the fan. Then it dawned on me that there was no place for the water to go except down through the roof. I pull off the flashing to verify it. The idiot had flashed OVER the drains, not UNDER them and the water was dumping straight down into the bank's conference room.

I called the bank's maintenance supervisor and we met with the HVAC owner for a look see. The HVAC guy was furious with me for tearing off the flashing until I asked him where the water was draining to. Fixing it would involve possibly as much as $5,000 to get a crane and lift the unit off the curb, do the flashing, then bring back the crane to put it back. The next day he declared bankruptcy.

When I was doing mortgages in Oregon the bank demanded a foundation survey before any other phase of construction could begin. If there was a mortgage and FL law is the same it would or at least should have been caught then. I am guessing either way the surveyor is responsible in the end even if he was hired by the General.

My son went to dirt law school, I will ask him and see what he thinks.

Amazing it got past so many people. As someone mentioned, the surveyor only deals with lgal plot descriptions and the property boundaries. In our area, the address is given when the permit is pulled, but that still doesn't guarantee the contractor puts it on the right lot.

It's happened a few times here that I know of and its always been the contractors fault...for not verifying which lot is the correct one. Can be an easy mistake with a bunch of empty lots together.

Matter of fact, my buddy is facing a similar situation right now. They sold their home and bought a lot and house plan from a local contractor/developer. His crews screwed up and started building a spec home on Kev's lot! They caught the mistake and told him they could just start over on the lot but I know this developer and wouldn't trust his cheap ass scrubs to backfill and compact the already excavated area properly. I don't know if my buddy is just going to get a different lot or what.

Anyway, as to RC's post, I'm thinking the contractor is on the hook for this one...

From the other post on this subject.

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida builder is trying to figure out what to do after constructing a million-dollar, ocean-view home in Florida on the wrong lot, authorities said.

The mistake occurred after two state-certified surveyors on the job separately marked the wrong property, said Carl Laundrie, spokesman for Flagler County on the Atlantic Coast north of Daytona Beach.

Laundrie said there were few landmarks in the new Hammock Dunes subdivision that could have helped someone catch the error.

"There is no giant oak tree on one corner of the lot so you would say, okay, this must be the lot. This particular piece of land is basically in a field back behind the dune," Laundrie said.

The 5,300-square-foot (492-sq-meter) house, which was completed in March, includes five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, a theater, game room and swimming pool, according to gotoby.com, a local real estate news site.

Mark and Brenda Voss of Linn, Missouri, who had the home built, did not return calls for comment, nor did Andrew Massaro and Brooke Triplett of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, who own the lot.

The Vosses own the lot next door to the one on which the house was built.

Flagler County Property Appraiser Jay Gardner said the mistake was discovered in September by a third surveyor working in the neighborhood.

The builder, Robbie Richmond of Keystone Homes, who the real estate website described as one of the area's most respected builders, did not return a call for comment.

Flagler County Property Appraiser Jay Gardner said he spoke to Richmond.

"All he wants to do is get it right," Gardner said.

Representatives of the surveying companies on the project also did not return calls for comment.

"It's up to the builder to rectify the situation, and the builder relied on the surveyor. I assume everything is going to be headed to court,{" said Laundrie.

Gardner said he hadn't spoken to the Vosses, but that Massaro was calm when informed of the problem.

'He wasn't tickled but he seemed to handle it quite well," Gardner said. "It happens from time to time."

The people own something like 18 lots and they built this house as a rental. They obviously have money and this might be a cash deal, no mortgage. If that's the case, there would be no bank requirement for a foundation survey or anyone else overlooking the job. They would have been responsible for their own overlooking and they failed to do it.

I have to agree the owner has some responsibility. With 18 lots on what sounds like a baron sand flatland I am guessing a trade of some sort with one of the other lots might be a good idea.

It depends on how nice the people are who have a new house on their lot. I think they could tell the contractor to stick it and move in if they want to.

to answer the OP's question, yes the GC could be bankrupted by this fiasco. a contracting company of this size is bonded and right now the bond is locked up tighter then 70 virgins. right now this company would be lucky to build a dog house. unless they are a very large scale builder their bond is anywhere from 1 million to 20 million. I was a Podunk size builder and carried 10 million until I started a sideline of haz mat abatement. then it went to 40 million.
my guess from 35 years as a GC, 10 in L.A. county commiefornia is that the North Carolina couple will get the house, the MO couple will get the bond, the surveyor's will get sued and the next hurricane will sweep the subdivision clean.

If it was my lot I would just tell the people look, you screwed up but here's the deal. You can have the house(that you paid for) and my lot, just trade me for a double lot(in a better location if possible).

Sleazy move to keep the house.

Yep.

It would be very sleazy indeed, but they could do it if they wanted to. The article only says that negotiations are going on. Nothing more.

True, Scott - but in this day of GPS surveying - it's hard for anyone to believe that mistake.
Seems the surveyors didn't read the legals carefully, or were drinking breakfast.
I'd bet they are gonna lose their collective rears.

Mark

PS What say you, Miles - lets hear from a pro!

that would be the honorable thing. in todays litigious world I doubt that will be the outcome.

you'd think there'd be enough desert in NM to hide one lawyer?

I'm right with you. First World problem for sure.

I sent this to my son, here is his reply.


Its hard to tell there are a lot of missing facts that this could turn on, but for the most part since its noted as "surveyor error" from 2013 i would assume this surveyor worked for the developer of the project or the architect who designed the house. Surveyors carry a special insurance call errors and omissions to cover this sort of thing, in the end it sounds like his insurance will pay. the chance that it was contractor is thin, in the world of contacting there is a "rule" called the spearin doctrine based on a early 1900 superior court case that more or less set the ground rules for construction for the last 100 years. there are 5 point to the spearin doctrine the big one is the owner (via the designer) implies a warranty that if the project is built per the plans and specifications it will work. so in this case if the plans contain the wrong lot # or coordinate, its not the contractors job to "ferret out" to quote the judge over the bromley decision (another pivotal case) every possible error or mistake the designer made. just in case this gets posted on the inter web, by dirt law school, i worked in the dirt, got my ass handed too me by smart general contractors, public agencies and owners, so i read some legal papers so that i did not get out smarted again....

This is am opinion from somebody who lives below the poverty level, make that well below. Just because someone has done well or was born into money it does not make them a bad guy. So this family in MO has money and they invested it in building lots then had a rental home built it does not mean they deserve to loose what they had built.

People screwed up, in this case two different surveyors somehow messed up according to the report I liked to above. Not sure how that happened as surveyors don't usually mess up let alone two in a row. But the mess up is not the fault of the guy with the money in MO any more than it is the fault of the people who really own the lot.

There's no sin in having money as long as you came by it legally and morally and don't let it be the most important thing in your life.

net worth and self worth have very little relation


have seen it in real life and right here on this board

some folks don't have much money and are rich


some folks have gobs of money and are very poor


money can come and go, good, or bad character, is not as transient

Best I have ever seen it written.

I've dug footings on the wrong lot, surveyors fault.

I've been given the wrong house plan for a given lot and had to remove and redo a foundation, contractors fault.

Contractors owned these lots.

I have a friend that improved a five acre lot while living in a trailer on site, was ready to build and found out the surveyor staked the wrong lot. Owner told him tough luck, surveyor bankrupted leaving my friend stuck.

really comes down to who owns the lot will take the hit, it's their problem.

Kent

You can't take anything from granted. We have a mfg home on an acreage. When they set the house 20 years ago, it was by pure luck that I caught them before they set it with the front door facing the back.

If you want to starve out the lawyers the owners of the house could offer to buy the property from the land owners, or give them another lot, and the landowners could say "Yep, that works. Thank you."

That's the first thing that happens, offer to trade lots, then add incentive, then buy out.

Still depends on the fairness of someone else.

Kent